Big List of Idol Billboard #1s

A little over a week ago, Fred Bronson, Billboard Chart Expert Extraordinaire, pointed out that Scotty McCreery was on track to get the 300th Billboard number 1 in Idol franchise history. If you were like me, you were totally impressed by that number. I’ve been meaning to collect a list of Idol Billboard number ones for a while and this milestone finally got me to get organized. Now, I couldn’t find 300, but see how many I could find after the jump.

Let’s start right out and declare that Fred Bronson is a better record keeper in his sleep than I can ever hope to be. So, the fact that I couldn’t find 300 is just a reflection of the limited tools and knowledge I had at my disposal. I did manage to find 3 more finalists that had charted than Fred, but that is likely to do with what he considers to be a Billboard chart. If I could find a number one ranking on any Billboard chart, I counted it. Both of us included number 1s achieved by bands which had an Idol in them. I did not officially count songs written by Idols for others, but I did note the #1 achievements if I remembered them.

All of these number ones are sourced directly from Billboard. If I had relied on wiki, I probably would have found 500. If you can provide proof of missing number ones, I would be happy to add them.

Number ones are grouped per season, per Idol (in order of finish) and by album/single. Within those grouping, songs/albums are ordered by the date on which the number one was first achieved. Auditioners and American Idol group efforts are gathered together at the end. A list of charting Idols for each season is included. If an Idol was part of a band, the bands name appears in brackets. If the band’s name is preceeded by a “+” sign, that means that the Idol charted both on their own as well as part of the band. In order to provide a complete snapshot, all of these stats were collected within a week (between two sets of charts being issued).

31. My Life Would Suck Without You – Hot Digital Songs – 2009-02-07
32. My Life Would Suck Without You – Hot 100 – 2009-02-07
33. My Life Would Suck Without You – Canadian Hot 100 – 2009-02-07
34. My Life Would Suck Without You – Hot Videoclip Tracks – 2009-02-07
35. I Do Not Hook Up – Hot Videoclip Tracks – 2009-06-27

99. When I See You – Bubbling Under R&B/Hip-Hop Singles – 2007-03-10
100. When I See U – Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs – 2007-07-07
101. When I See U – Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay – 2007-07-07
102. When I See U – Hot 100 Recurrent Airplay – 2007-09-29
103. Put You Up On Game with Aretha Franklin – bubbling Under R&B/Hip-Hop Singles 2007-10-20

Taylor Hicks: 3
Singles: 3
172. Do I Make You Proud/Takin’ It To The Streets – Hot Singles Sales – 2006-07-01
173. Do I Make You Proud – Pop 100 – 2006-07-01
174. Do I Make You Proud – Hot 100 – 2006-07-01

American Idol Group Efforts: 7
Singles: 3
261. Good Bless the U.S.A, American Idol Finalists – Hot Single Sales – 2003-05-03
262. When You Tell Me That You Love Me, American Idol Finalists Season 4 – Hot Single Sales – 2005-05-07
263. When You Tell Me That You Love Me, American Idol Finalists Season 4 – Hot Canadian Digital Singles – 2005-05-14

Disclaimers:
A. I swear, I did not make up any of these chart names
B. I apologize in advance for typos and misspellings.
C. If I missed one of your favourite Idol’s achievements, it’s not because I hate them. It’s because I’m human.
D. Yes, I know. This list is unfair because contestants from Season 1 have had longer to chart than those from later seasons. This is just meant to be a fun collection of #1s.
E. Yes, I know. This list is unfair because some contestants scored number twos on major charts which is harder to do than on the Hot Polka Analog Songs Chart. This is just meant to be a fun collection of #1s. Everybody is welcome to post their own lists.

This is the daily numbers thread. Sorry, the concert stats have not been released yet.

This is such an impressive research effort that I want to flop like a jellyfish from exhaustion just reading it.

lucy

Thanks, Kirsten. Fun reading!

windmills

Kirsten: D. Yes, I know. This list is unfair because contestants from Season 1 have had longer to chart than those from later seasons. This is just meant to be a fun collection of #1s.
E. Yes, I know. This list is unfair because some contestants scored number twos on major charts which is harder to do than on the Hot Polka Analog Songs Chart. This is just meant to be a fun collection of #1s. Everybody is welcome to post their own lists.

LOLZ. Kirsten you win the internet today. The fact that you were able to keep your sense of humor after the exhaustive research you did is AMAZING. THANKS for putting this together, I can only imagine how much effort it took.

Eileen99

OMG this is amazing. Gold star for you, Kirsten, wow.

Q3

Awesome Kristen.

Do not know if Fred counted International BBoard #1 — but here is one.

Adam Lambert – FYE #1 Japan Hot 100

brie200

Amazing Kirsten. I can’t imagine the amount of hard work and research that went into that. Wow!

Eileen99

But meanwhile:

38 30 SCOTTY MCCREERY I Love You This Big 850 497 353 6.258

+78 spins
+49 bullet
+.538 Audience

The beat continues.

Kirsten

Do not know if Fred counted International BBoard #1 — but here is one.

Adam Lambert – FYE #1 Japan Hot 100

Do you have a cite for that? Billboard is listing FYE as peaking at #2 on the Japan Hot 100 Singles for the chart week 2010-04-03.

Sometimes they re-run charts or perhaps the Japan Hot 100 is different than the Japan Hot 100 Singles chart and is not recognized by Billboard US (just the Japan Hot 100 Singles).

Buffynut

I can not believe you did this! Wow, what an undertaking! But thank you because I was soooo curious about all the number ones in that Billboard article!

tripp_ncwy

Other good news, Cook is already making moves up the HAC chart since I posted the update for today. He moved ahead of Kei$ha & Mat Kearney.

42 38 DAVID COOK Last Goodbye 449 388 61 1.148

Kirsten

Other good news, Cook is already making moves up the HAC chart since I posted the update for today. He moved ahead of Kei$ha & Mat Kearney.

I’m still seeing him at 40 on AllAccess and the Mediabase feed. They don’t normally update at this time. He’s 38 on All Stations though.

Is the 38th on the live feed?

Eileen99

Anybody who watched the CMT awards show last night would have seen Jason Aldean close the show with Ludacris collaborating on Jason’s new single Dirt Road Anthem. They actually recorded a remix of the song & made it available a few hours ago. It’s already #103 on iTunes while the original moved from #13 to #10 after the show. I downloaded the remix, it’s pretty amazing and surprisingly works really well in the studio.

ETA:
Ok, I don’t know what happened but when I refreshed my screen again, it was back at 40.

springboard

Is the 38th on the live feed?

TGL is #38 on the ‘All Stations’ chart, and still #40 on the ‘Published’ chart.

http://emuisemo.pbworks.com eilonwy

Eileen99, thanks for pointing out the Jason Aldean/Ludacris remix. I had to buy it, if only as a not-to-be-missed novelty.

Buffynut

Dia and Xenia are still in the i-Tunes top 100. Dia at 21 (Wow!) and Xenia at 53.

Mike M

Kirsten, I just recently discovered you and your numbers, and I am really enjoying everything about this. Keep up the great work.

windmills

They finally (quietly) made Remind Me available at Itunes as an individual download as opposed to an album only track where you have to buy Brad’s whole album to get it. I saw a post at a Carrie fan board mentioning it’s up to #54 all genre but on my feed it’s #61 all genre, #16 country.

tripp_ncwy

TGL is #38 on the ‘All Stations’ chart, and still #40 on the ‘Published’ chart.

Ok, that makes sense. I thought I was going crazy.

mmb

06/09/2011 at 10:19 am
Dia and Xenia are still in the i-Tunes top 100. Dia at 21 (Wow!) and Xenia at 53.

The voice in season iTunes positions could give a sense of how popular idol performances sold in season. I suspect that many idol tracks have made top 20 ( or top 10) during the course of the season. We will never know for sure, but if glee and voice tracks shoot up the iTunes charts, no doubt idol tracks are selling equally as well during the season. I still would give my left arm to know what cook, Archie, Adam and kris’ in season sales were. I bet the total is pretty impressive

jersey

Wow, Kirsten! Impressive! Thanks so much!

car3278sweet

Go Cookie!

And Kirsten… I am all amazement. Thanks for the stats. What was the most surprising for me was S5 – all those peeps charting. wow.

Buffynut

mmb says:

06/09/2011 at 10:42 am

06/09/2011 at 10:19 am
The voice in season iTunes positions could give a sense of how popular idol performances sold in season. I suspect that many idol tracks have made top 20 ( or top 10) during the course of the season. We will never know for sure, but if glee and voice tracks shoot up the iTunes charts, no doubt idol tracks are selling equally as well during the season. I still would give my left arm to know what cook, Archie, Adam and kris’ in season sales were. I bet the total is pretty impressive

Oh, I so agree! Would love to have those numbers. I would bet that Cook, Adam, and Kris probably had a few top 10s. I could even see Billie Jean, Mad World, and Heartless being at #1.
Maybe Idol should even count it as part of the voting process, like The Voice is. See which contestants the voters are actually willing to spend some money on.

CindyM

Wow, thank you Kirsten!!

http://www.twilightslo.com Mateja

Oh, I so agree! Would love to have those numbers. I would bet that Cook, Adam, and Kris probably had a few top 10s. I could even see Billie Jean, Mad World, and Heartless being at #1.
Maybe Idol should even count it as part of the voting process, like The Voice is. See which contestants the voters are actually willing to spend some money on.

Maybe they should replace Judges Save with iTunes Save or something.

I would refresh the format like this:
Skip the semifinals completely and let the judges/producers to pick TOP 16 contestants. Finalists would be announced on Wednesday episode and Thursday’s episode would be the first performance show. That first show could be pre-taped in advance and the judges wouldn’t even have to be present. There would be no voting that week, but studio versions of the songs sung would be released to iTunes. No one would get eliminated that week. A week later the finals would start for real.
That second week two contestants that sold the most downloads (until Monday midnight) in the previous week would be immune from elimination. The viewers would still vote for everyone, but if one of the two best selling contestants ended up on the chopping block, they would be saved and the next lowest vote getter not in TOP 2 iTunes sellers would be eliminated.

A week later, sales totals from week 2 would be added to week 1 sales to determine who is safe that week. All sales from previous weeks would count. Two contestants would be always safe until TOP 7 or TOP 6 week and from TOP 6 or TOP 5 week the best selling contestant of the season would be safe.

I would also make three way finale – 1 iTunes best seller and two other contestants based on voting.

The actual sales numbers wouldn’t be revealed all season, Ryan would only mention if the eliminated contestant wasn’t actually the lowest vote getter – that would mean one of the other two contestants in Bottom 3 was TOP 2 in iTunes sales.

The best selling contestant of the season would be revealed at the end of the season – either in the last episode or via press release. That contestant would get a prize (some cash or even record deal).

I think that would be a nice twist to the stale Idol format.

Eileen99

Mateja, I kind of love your suggestion. Doing something like this would freshen things up substantially. They would need to be truer to the performance version of the songs, though. Some of the iTunes tracks are ridiculously different than the performances (Scotty’s You’ve Got A Friend, Kris’ Heartless to name a couple).

Hazehel

I could even see Billie Jean, Mad World, and Heartless being at #1.

We know that Billie Jean was #1, also Always Be My Baby.

The way The Voice is doing with iTunes downloads is bad, encouraging people to buy multiple copies of songs they don’t need, and makes you suspect that those that charted higher might just have more crazy fans.

Elliegrll

Maybe they should replace Judges Save with iTunes Save or something.

There are too many people, especially some minorities, who can’t, won’t or don’t use itunes. Bringing in this aspect will disenfranchise some viewers more than text voting ever has.

Buffynut

Elliegrll says:

06/09/2011 at 11:32 am

Maybe they should replace Judges Save with iTunes Save or something.

There are too many people, especially some minorities, who can’t, won’t or don’t use itunes. Bringing in this aspect will disenfranchise some viewers more than text voting ever has

There are too many people who don’t have AT & T. That is a much bigger put off, to me, than spending $1 for a song! No one says they have to buy mutltiple copies. I bought Xenia’s and I only bought one, because I like it. We don’t even know if many Voice viewers are buying mutlitple copies of Dia or Xenia. My guess is “No,” especially in light of the fact that the other contestants haven’t gotten close to top 100. I think they are charting because these recordings are good.

Masieta

I still would give my left arm to know what cook, Archie, Adam and kris’ in season sales were. I bet the total is pretty impressive

Not to beat a dead horse but the I-tunes numbers for season 8 is only the week of the final and does not show tabulated numbers for the prior 10 or 12 weeks when Idol i-tunes were available. The numbers HAVE NEVER been released for songs sold during the season itself…not during any season.

CindyM

Masieta, those are just sales for the week after the finale. People want the sales DURING the season, and those have never been revealed.

CindyM

How do you know Billie Jean and Always Be My Baby were #1?

Kirsten

The numbers HAVE NEVER been released for songs sold during the season itself…not during any season.

Yep. I’m still hoping for a tell all book.

I would also make three way finale – 1 iTunes best seller and two other contestants based on voting.

I think, all things being equal, the top seller would usually be one of the final 2. It would only be different if they don’t share a genre with equal single selling power.

This methodology would tend to favour the Pop contestants since Pop traditionally moves the most singles. I do think it would tend to further disenfranchize fans.

My major objection to this is that it encourages bulk buying. People don’t need 10 digital copies of a song. While it is a person’s choice to do this, I still find it manipulative. Idol makes enough money already.

123abc456

For David Cook I count 6 singles and one album. Not 5 singles.

Kirsten

How do you know Billie Jean and Always Be My Baby were #1?

Idol fans are wiley and it took a while for iTunes to block all the holes.

At first, we could do out and out searches for songs and then compare pop bars (they were only supressing them from appearing on the charts, not the pop bars themselves). Then, somebody figured out if you put all the top 100 songs and the Idol songs into a sort of “I’m interested in these songs” basket, then you could see how they were selling relative to each other.

And that season, the lost control of things every once in a while and the Idol songs would chart on the regular iTunes charts. That happened once for a short while in S8 as well.

Hazehel

No one says they have to buy mutltiple copies.

No one says people have to vote 1000 times for their favorites, yet they do.

Kirsten

For David Cook I count 6 singles and one album. Not 5 singles.

Thanks. Fixed.

Pam

Wow Kirsten. That sure is one big list you’ve got there. I don’t know how you keep track of all this stuff but you do a splendid job! :)

Pam

Here is a snapshot of the All Access country Taking Off chart. You will have to have an account to see the full list posted but I thought some of you might want to get somewhat of a glimpse of what it looked like today.

it’s not that you missed her… because she is in your charting list, but it seems you forgot to add Katharine McPhee to that season’s part

http://www.twilightslo.com Mateja

I think, all things being equal, the top seller would usually be one of the final 2. It would only be different if they don’t share a genre with equal single selling power.

This methodology would tend to favour the Pop contestants since Pop traditionally moves the most singles. I do think it would tend to further disenfranchize fans.

Well, my suggested format would only guarantee a place in the final (TOP 3) to to the best selling contestant. Contestants that don’t sell that well could still win the show.

Pop contestants aren’t exactly dominating the show, so I don’t see the problem with that. The show is a search for a star, recording artist. The labels expect their artists to sell. Idol gives recording contracts to the TOP contestants, but all those millions of votes don’t matter to the label. If Idol contestants don’t sell, they lose their contracts. I’m not suggesting that the worst iTunes sellers should get eliminated automatically.

If you inspire the most people to buy your recordings then you certainly deserve to stay in the competition until the end.

My major objection to this is that it encourages bulk buying. People don’t need 10 digital copies of a song. While it is a person’s choice to do this, I still find it manipulative. Idol makes enough money already.

What is worse? 10 digital copies of a song downloaded or thousands of votes cast in two hour period? I say power voting is worse.

jpfan

Wow, Chris Medina has the #1 single in Norway as we speak.

I wonder if it’s charting anywhere else.

Montavilla

I’m wondering if Fred was counting any American Juniors songs in his total of 300. I have no idea if they ever charted, but that might add something.

Also, I remember seeing the NOW albums listed on these chart counting pages when an Idol song appeared on them, as well as the Grammy compilation cd. But those compilation things probably never hit #1, right?

http://emuisemo.pbworks.com eilonwy

Also, I remember seeing the NOW albums listed on these chart counting pages when an Idol song appeared on them, as well as the Grammy compilation cd. But those compilation things probably never hit #1, right?

I can’t figure out how to make BB’s database cough up Now! albums consistently so I can’t check this to Kirsten’s standards… but it took me only 3 tries on Wikipedia to find a Now! album that supposedly hit #1 on the BB 200. Now 27 has songs by Clarkson, Daughtry, and Underwood.

That note is NOT a request that Kirsten tackle the Now! chart rankings! It’s just confirmation that these could contribute to making up the full 300. I can live without knowing the full details of these.

Buffynut

Hazehel says:

06/09/2011 at 12:23 pm

No one says they have to buy mutltiple copies.

No one says people have to vote 1000 times for their favorites, yet they do

But the power voting is free. I don’t know a single person who doesn’t have unlimited texting, with their cell phone plans.
Buying 10 singles is $10. I just don’t see that happening with too many people, especially if it’s every week, multiple singles, over a 2-3 month period. I am pretty much an Idol Loon, and even I wouldn’t do that! :)

Elliegrll

There are too many people who don’t have AT & T. That is a much bigger put off, to me, than spending $1 for a song! No one says they have to buy mutltiple copies. I bought Xenia’s and I only bought one, because I like it. We don’t even know if many Voice viewers are buying mutlitple copies of Dia or Xenia. My guess is “No,” especially in light of the fact that the other contestants haven’t gotten close to top 100. I think they are charting because these recordings are good.

If people don’t have AT&T there are other ways to vote, that’s a different situation than having another layer to the process than having itunes purchases play a role in who gets to eliminated. If that’s allowed it will be even harder to have a diverse cast, both in terms of genre and race.

Wow, Chris Medina has the #1 single in Norway as we speak.

Two weeks ago, he said that he’s going on a tour in Norway.

Trina

I think Rickey has an archive of all the season 7 weekly popularity bars and how the studio recordings charted against other songs. ABMB and Billie Jean, at least IIRC the first week had bars way, way longer than the songs below them.

I’ve powervoted for Idol contestants through phone voting and text voting, but there is no way I would buy multiple downloads of the same song on itunes to account for votes. I dont think many others would either.

Elliegrll

If you inspire the most people to buy your recordings then you certainly deserve to stay in the competition until the end.

What is worse? 10 digital copies of a song downloaded or thousands of votes cast in two hour period? I say power voting is worse.

I don’t get it. How is one of these things bad, but the other is good. The point is to inspire people to vote for you, so how is inspiring them to text or call over a two hour period a bad thing?

Tony

All hail season 5

And wow. Didn’t know Fantasia had so many number 1s. Kelly had a lot more than I thought as well.

Thanks for this comprehensive list!

Buffynut

How is one of these things bad, but the other is good. The point is to inspire people to vote for you, so how is inspiring them to text or call over a two hour period a bad thing?

Because for 2 seasons in a row it skewed the results as it pertains to who will buy “the record.” Voting is free. Buying the singles kind of says, IMO, “Put your money where your vote is.” It makes the songs part of the music industry instead of just part of a reality TV show. It’s never gonna happen anyway. Of all the changes Nigel may be thinking of, I would guess that limiting the AT&T votes is at the bottom of his list.

Elliegrll

Because for 2 seasons in a row it skewed the results as it pertains to who will buy “the record.”

Honestly, we don’t have actual facts to back this up, it’s an opinion. But, even if it’s true that those who voted weren’t going to buy the person’s music after the show, so what. Votes and viewership of the show have never translated to matching album sales. That’s been the case for everyone, and not just the last two winners. People say that the text voting only became a problem during the last two years, so how do we explain season two? Many people buy the AI studio songs, but don’t purchase the original music. The studio purchases are souvenirs, people are supporting reality show contestants, it has nothing to do with what happens after the show. I’d also be pressed to say that Crystal selling 40,000 to 60,000 albums more than Lee proves anything. As always, there were people who voted who didn’t buy music from either of them. There are a lot of factors involved in how many albums someone sells post AI.

http://www.twilightslo.com Mateja

I don’t get it. How is one of these things bad, but the other is good. The point is to inspire people to vote for you, so how is inspiring them to text or call over a two hour period a bad thing?

The point is to make people interested in you. I’m not saying that getting people to vote for you is bad per se, but Idol is supposedly a search for a recording artist, so why wouldn’t iTunes sales also matter? The contestants spend a lot of time during the season recording those studio recordings, so why shouldn’t those that sell the most get to stay on the show until the end?

If people don’t have AT&T there are other ways to vote, that’s a different situation than having another layer to the process than having itunes purchases play a role in who gets to eliminated. If that’s allowed it will be even harder to have a diverse cast, both in terms of genre and race.

To be honest, I don’t care about cast diversity that much. Sure, season 9 is a prime example of bad casting. But, one of the main things that bothers me about Idol is that the kids usually just don’t seem real, like I could easily find them in any American city. They are so “well chosen”, I can quickly tell in which “box” they belong. So much “type casting” is boring, at least to me. I recently watched some videos from AI season 1 and he cast of that season was strangely refreshing. No, it was not necessarily the best talent ever, but the contestants seemed like real, normal young adults from America. I get similar feeling observing The Voice.

Kirsten

it’s not that you missed her… because she is in your charting list, but it seems you forgot to add Katharine McPhee to that season’s part

I could not find any Billboard Number 1s for Kat.

If you inspire the most people to buy your recordings then you certainly deserve to stay in the competition until the end.

But that’s just singles. What about formats that move more albums? There would be a built in bias against that. Albums are just as important as singles.

And we’ve seen people move a lot of Idol performance singles struggle to move real singles, so I’m not convinced that it is a totally accurate predictor of post-Idol sales.

What is worse? 10 digital copies of a song downloaded or thousands of votes cast in two hour period? I say power voting is worse.

A thousand power votes cast in two hours just gives you bleeding fingers. Buying 10 digital copies is $12.90 (more if you like more than one contestant) you don’t need to spend. Plus, I know that the power voters will get multiple accounts. I know I’m being paternalistic, but there are some people who get wrapped up in Idol voting that cannot afford to do that. It’s like encouraging gambling.

Plus, I feel that it totally undermines the contestant going forward. Idols are already susceptible to accusations of frenzied bulk buying. If it is codified into the DNA of all their initial sales (the show is out-and-out encouraging it), then it will get worse.

People in the biz already dismiss Idol’s in the polling booths of the Internet and the requesting of songs based on the trained voting behaviour of Idol fans, why get them to ignore the sales numbers even more?

Finally, I strongly suspect that the power voters will spend the full 2 hours voting in their time zone and any other time zone they can access and then spend $12.90xN accounts buying the singles.

Power voters are wiley.

Elliegrll

so why shouldn’t those that sell the most get to stay on the show until the end?

My point was that one can’t be bad and the other good. But, unlike guesses about text voting, we do know for a fact that certain genres of music dominate the itunes downloads, and that certain demographic groups usually don’t use this service or others to download music.

To be honest, I don’t care about cast diversity that much.

The producers care, and I’d say that the general public does too. If the cast isn’t diverse, then the viewing audience won’t be either. In the long run, that will hurt the show. Viewers have to feel that anyone, regardless of race, sex, or genre has a chance to win.

musicality

Tess says:
06/09/2011 at 12:09 pm
Not to beat a dead horse but the I-tunes numbers for season 8 is only the week of the final and does not show tabulated numbers for the prior 10 or 12 weeks when Idol i-tunes were available. The numbers HAVE NEVER been released for songs sold during the season itself…not during any season.

It’s interesting but a lot of people don’t seem to know this. I believe 2x iTunes accidently slipped and released mid season. I believe it was season 7 & 8. I tried a little digging and couldn’t find the charts on 7 or 8 but I did find this about Season 8 from the NY Post and written by MJ herself :) .

Not suprisingly, the leader — by far — is front-runner Adam Lambert, who holds six of the top 10 spots in the Idol chart this season. The haunting “Mad World”– the song that got Simon Cowell on his feet for a rare standing ovation — is the No. 1-selling song so far this year, the iTunes site showed.

Can anyone remember what happened on the iTunes slip for season 7?

my.name.is.sylar

Just a fact I learn from somewhere, but just want to share, even if you buy 10 copies of 1 song on 1 account, it just count as 1 copy sold. I recall this on one of the threads discussing music sales and charts. So even if you buy 10 copy of a single on an account, iTunes/Apple will count it as just 1 copy sold…

Buffynut

People say that the text voting only became a problem during the last two years, so how do we explain season two?

Season 2 is easy to explain. It was a very close vote, I believe this is one of the few years where they actually revealed %. Clay’s fans had somehting to prove and we are talking Claymates, when we refer to Clay!
Also, before, I’d say around season 7, most cell phone plans were “pay per text” so the texting probably wasn’t as crazy as it is now. The unlimited text plans, at a reasonable price, have probably only been around the past 3 years or so. Before that, texting was very expensive. I think we’ve all seen those news articles where a family gets their cell bill and finds out their teenager did $1000 worth of texting. That doesn’t happen anymore.

Kirsten

Because for 2 seasons in a row it skewed the results as it pertains to who will buy “the record.” Voting is free. Buying the singles kind of says, IMO, “Put your money where your vote is.” It makes the songs part of the music industry instead of just part of a reality TV show. It’s never gonna happen anyway.

The stats we have for the last 4 years (S7-S10) show that the winner sold the most Idol downloads.

Those voters were willing to put up their money where their votes were that week. It was later that they declined to buy the albums.

Again, I don’t think the iTunes voting does anything other than pad 19Alphabets pocket.

I would support it counting in voting totals, if and only if, users were restricted to one and only vote per contestant per account (i.e. they can vote for however many contestants they want, but only vote once per week per contestant per account using iTunes downloads). This removes the incentive to create multiple accounts because it is a lot of work for not much gain.

Nobody has ever provided me with a convincing argument why a person needs more than one digital copy of a song. The digital copy legally allows you to share it across your own devices (iTunes used to restrict you to about 4 devices, but the increase of price to $1.29 came with an unlimited personal use). To encourage people to download a song 10 times is ridiculous and manipulative. And scuzzy.

Buffynut

my.name.is.sylar says:

06/09/2011 at 1:49 pm

Just a fact I learn from somewhere, but just want to share, even if you buy 10 copies of 1 song on 1 account, it just count as 1 copy sold. I recall this on one of the threads discussing music sales and charts. So even if you buy 10 copy of a single on an account, iTunes/Apple will count it as just 1 copy sold…

I think they will count up to 2-3. I know it’s more than just 1. But that may be just be for Sound Scan and not for their own charts. Not sure. I’m sure Kirsten knows though.

Buffynut

The stats we have for the last 4 years (S7-S10) show that the winner sold the most Idol downloads.

But once again, Kirsten, those official numbers are only for what happened after the finale. One “slip” from Season 8, earlier in the season, says otherwise.

Q3

Kirsten says:
06/09/2011 at 9:55 am

Do not know if Fred counted International BBoard #1 — but here is one.

Adam Lambert – FYE #1 Japan Hot 100

Do you have a cite for that? Billboard is listing FYE as peaking at #2 on the Japan Hot 100 Singles for the chart week 2010-04-03.

Sometimes they re-run charts or perhaps the Japan Hot 100 is different than the Japan Hot 100 Singles chart and is not recognized by Billboard US (just the Japan Hot 100 Singles).

There are two separate Billboard Japan Charts — FYE was #1 on one of the charts.

#1 Japan Hot 100 Airplay (Billboard)
#2 Japan Hot 100 (Billboard)

The Japan Hot 100 Airplay chart in not on the US Billboard site, just on their Japanese site. The US Billboard site only lists the Japan Hot 100 (sales + airplay).

But Billboard subscribers get all the Japan and EU Billboard charts. So maybe Fred counted the International Billboard charts that are not generally available and often not reported in the US? I would imagine that Kelly and Jordin may have a few.

Well just a thought.

Kirsten

Just a fact I learn from somewhere, but just want to share, even if you buy 10 copies of 1 song on 1 account, it just count as 1 copy sold. I recall this on one of the threads discussing music sales and charts. So even if you buy 10 copy of a single on an account, iTunes/Apple will count it as just 1 copy sold…

That is not a fact. Fred Bronson who was working for Billboard at the time addressed this issue specifically. If you buy more than a set number of digital copies (he floated a number of more than 8, but I bet the number 10 was chosen carefully by the Voice) it is deemed that you are trying to manipulate the charts and none of the copies you purchased will be counted.

If you buy fewer than the threshold each week, they will all be credited to the artist by SoundScan.

The same is true of physical copies. If you walk into a store and buy 20 copies of a CD, Soundscan will not count the sale. So, if you want to do that, you need to make a run through two different cash registers and only by ten per register.

The link I have to the Chart Beat has expired, but it was published Oct 12, 2007.

Kirsten

But Billboard subscribers get all the Japan and EU Billboard charts. So maybe Fred counted the International Billboard charts that are not generally available and often not reported in the US? I would imagine that Kelly and Jordin may have a few.

That could very well be what happened. Fred clearly has better sources than I do. I do have access to a number of foreign charts (e.g. European, Canadian, Japanese, New Zeleand, etc), but I would not be surprised it is not all charts in all countries.

Elliegrll

But once again, Kirsten, those official numbers are only for what happened after the finale. One “slip” from Season 8, earlier in the season, says otherwise.

The slip that we have was for a certain time period, not for the whole season, or even a week, or a few days. Just because someone was selling a certain amount at a certain point, that doesn’t show us what was happening the week before or the next week. For example, when we got the opportunity to see the top 1000 downloads for season ten, only Lauren, Scotty, Haley, James and Casey were charting, but this doesn’t mean that none of the others ever sold anything, or that they didn’t outsell any of those who were still on the list. It makes sense that the top four would songs that were still charting, since they lasted the longest on the show, and were still fresh in people’s minds.

sma11ie

Can anyone remember what happened on the iTunes slip for season 7?

In S7 we had iTunes indications consistently based on popularity bars. Rickey.org has them all in his archives.

From the comments, it seems like Always Be My Baby and Don’t Wanna Miss A Thing (!) were #6 overall at the time of the post, but both eventually hit #1 overall. I think the latter’s success was a result of Cook’s popularity by Top 3 rather than an indication of the strength of the track (as with BJ and ABMB).

Anyway, I miss those popularity bars from S7. It was cool to see which weeks Archie’s track, or Jason’s track, or Brooke’s track would take the lead, etc.

Tess

We have, over the course of 10 years, seen that votes can be “manipulated” because of power voting in some format or other…and that idol fan bases during the show itself have the power if they are dedicated enough to ensure that the outcome of the show may go their way. But we have also learned over 10 years that the voting favorite does not necessarily win the game once the season and the voting is done. We have had a few 2nd place finishers who have succeeded beyond the top vote getter, we have even watched a fourth place finisher be top man on the real world totem pole after his season. We have also seen high vote getters carry their fan bases for a year or two and then come crashing down, hard, when the talent doesn’t coincide with the votes.

So really and truly…idol is working as it was intended. Find a recording “star”. But the bottom line is that the resulting star may not be the champ of a particular season, nor will their star emerge immediately. Cream still rises and I think in a few more years we will really be able to see who were really (and are) the cream of the idol crop.

briguyx

Not to slight your hard work on this Kirsten, but one place where you would have gotten closer to Fred’s tabulation is when it comes to the BB 200 album chart. For instance, Kelly’s “Breakaway,” Clay’s “Merry Christmas With Love” and all three of Fantasia’s albums made the BB 200.

http://www.twilightslo.com Mateja

The slip that we have was for a certain time period, not for the whole season, or even a week, or a few days. Just because someone was selling a certain amount at a certain point, that doesn’t show us what was happening the week before or the next week. For example, when we got the opportunity to see the top 1000 downloads for season ten, only Lauren, Scotty, Haley, James and Casey were charting, but this doesn’t mean that none of the others ever sold anything, or that they didn’t outsell any of those who were still on the list. It makes sense that the top four would songs that were still charting, since they lasted the longest on the show, and were still fresh in people’s minds.

Sure, we can all agree that one leak of iTunes popularity bars can’t tell the whole story.

Numbers that get released for the week of finale and after, don’t tell the whole story either. After the finale many buy winner’s recordings just because that person won American Idol. So it’s not really a surprise that the winner usually sells more tracks than anyone else. That doesn’t mean that person sold tracks consistently well all season or more than anyone else that season.
And those that get eliminated before the finale naturally sell less downloads that week than TOP 2.

I would personally prefer to download 10 copies of a song to show my support ($1.29×10) than text thousands of votes for two or four hours straight. But I guess that’s just me. I’m not American and televoting here certainly isn’t free and the idea of two hours long voting marathon is just crazy.

Mel1

It seems for the most part, the winners were, in fact, the most all around successful. Meaning, most votes, most albums sold, etc. Weren’t S2 votes really close? So in that season it could have gone either way. I think S5 is the wackiest year where #4 is really successful, and #1, well we know the history. S10 #1 & 2 are fairly close in success. S8 is more like S2, but the votes were not close.

Buffynut

Sure, we can all agree that one leak of iTunes popularity bars can’t tell the whole story.

Numbers that get released for the week of finale and after, don’t tell the whole story either. After the finale many buy winner’s recordings just because that person won American Idol.

^^^ This ^^^ and a song that may have been #1, for a few weeks early in the season, will track lower during finale week. It’s probably logical (to me anyway) that the song sells the most the week after it’s performance. We’ve probably seen some proof of that with the Glee songs. I don’t think it would be out of line to use the Glee song tracking as an example.

Kirsten

Not to slight your hard work on this Kirsten, but one place where you would have gotten closer to Fred’s tabulation is when it comes to the BB 200 album chart. For instance, Kelly’s “Breakaway,” Clay’s “Merry Christmas With Love” and all three of Fantasia’s albums made the BB 200.

I’m just counting the number ones. Kelly Clarkson has singles peaking on 252 charts (Not necessarly unique charts. For instance, she’s had more than 1 single chart on the Hot 100 and each song peak counts seperately). The post would be remarkably long if I posted every single peak reached by an Idol. The latest two Idols just produced something like 16 peaks in one week (with one song and one album each).

Hazehel

From the comments, it seems like Always Be My Baby and Don’t Wanna Miss A Thing (!) were #6 overall at the time of the post, but both eventually hit #1 overall.

Sure, we can all agree that one leak of iTunes popularity bars can’t tell the whole story.

Numbers that get released for the week of finale and after, don’t tell the whole story either. After the finale many buy winner’s recordings just because that person won American Idol. So it’s not really a surprise that the winner usually sells more tracks than anyone else. That doesn’t mean that person sold tracks consistently well all season or more than anyone else that season.

Mateja, I whole heartedly agree with your second paragraph.

As far as the one leak, even tho it doesn’t tell the whole story, you can extrapolate from that short period of time. Adam had all six of his songs charting on iTunes during that leak, some much higher than others (some very low). Since that covered six weeks of songs, you have to figure that they aren’t all just going to all of a sudden pop on that chart (and some very high). You could assume he had five the previous week, four two weeks prior, etc. As I said, it’s not likely that a song he sang five weeks prior would all of a sudden pop onto the chart that one week of the leak.

Mad World was charting the highest (actually very high), and that was over a week after he sang it on the show (since BTBW was also on that chart). One might (I said might) assume that since he had every song he sang chart, they still could have been charting (maybe not all) weeks after the leak.

Is this clear as mud?

Buffynut

Is this clear as mud?

I think it’s very clear and very logical! :)

Kirsten

As I said, it’s not likely that a song he sang five weeks prior would all of a sudden pop onto the chart that one week of the leak.

It could if you had a moment. Moments gain a lot of fans so people might go and collect a bunch of your songs after that.

As far as the one leak, even tho it doesn’t tell the whole story, you can extrapolate from that short period of time.

One data point is very hard to accurately extrapolate from unless you have a fairly accurate model to begin with.

Q3

Mel1 says:
06/09/2011 at 3:14 pm

It seems for the most part, the winners were, in fact, the most all around successful. Meaning, most votes, most albums sold, etc. Weren’t S2 votes really close? So in that season it could have gone either way. I think S5 is the wackiest year where #4 is really successful, and #1, well we know the history. S10 #1 & 2 are fairly close in success. S8 is more like S2, but the votes were not close.

Actually, winners are batting only 56%

Seasons 1, 3, 4, 6, 7 — winner sold most albums.

Seasons 2, 5, 8, 9 — non-winner sold most albums.

S2 they announced the vote and it was very close. (Another dead horse) but we do not know the votes from S8.

And S8 really doesn’t look much like S2 when it comes to sales.

S2 Clay and Ruben both had #1 Platinum albums — Clay just sold more than Ruben.

The only other Idol debut albums that charted #1 were Kelly and Daughtry. So having two #1 album debuts in one season is really impressive.

Mel1

Q3, I don’t think you can even compare sales from one season to another. Even Carrie is far from her 7 million sales from first to current album sales. I’m only referring to relative success.

I only compared S2 to S8 because both winners did well, but runner-ups did quite a bit better. S9, neither are particularly successful.

Trina

Exactly Q3, and that’s more than enough to make me think there a huge disconnect between votes.

Ruben’s success is always underestimated. He sold a lot of albums, had a big R&B hit and is the only male winner to get a Grammy nomination. Clay made the bigger splash but Ruben was in no way a failure.

Buffynut

Mel1 says:

06/09/2011 at 3:50 pm

Q3, I don’t think you can even compare sales from one season to another. Even Carrie is far from her 7 million sales from first to current album sales. I’m only referring to relative success.

Q3’s comparisons are how #1 did compared to #2 of the same season. Not how one season did compared to another season. In talking about the winner not being the top seller, in some seasons, hers is a good comparison.
Now if we were to compare Cook to Carrie, then “No” definitely not a fair comparison.

Mel1

Ruben’s success is always underestimated. He sold a lot of albums, had a big R&B hit and is the only male winner to get a Grammy nomination. Clay made the bigger splash but Ruben was in no way a failure.

If anyone is saying Ruben is a failure (not me), it’s only because he has kinda been forgotten. After his big year(s), he went down pretty fast. Clay seemed to be up there a while longer, but he seems to have lost what he once had. (Look at his recent album sales and concerts). I think it’s pretty scarey.

sma11ie

It could if you had a moment. Moments gain a lot of fans so people might go and collect a bunch of your songs after that.

One data point is very hard to accurately extrapolate from unless you have a fairly accurate model to begin with.

That’s why it was so cool to see the iTunes popularity bars week after week in S7, because you saw the effect of each moment as it happens. After Billie Jean, you could see Cook clearly gained fans, as it boosted his other tracks’ popularity. And back then, Dial Idol was a lot more reliable, so you could see the confirmation on Dial Idol popularity as well, how something like Hello boosted David from the back of the pack way up, and how BJ shot him up to the top even though he didn’t have the biggest fanbase at that time. One of the reasons I became an “internet fan” of Idol after S7 was because I enjoyed tracking it so much using data posted/found by blogs, etc. LOL.

I’m bummed we don’t have iTunes info anymore and Dial Idol sucks. I remember trying to track S8 on Dial Idol, and it seemed like such a roller coaster ride each week, but things were so flippy floppy, and by then DI had gotten less reliable, so I couldn’t even tell who was popular (Adam? Danny? WTF, how did Kris sneak up?). Fortunately, even with the death of DI, there’s plenty of other number-y stuff to stare at til you go cross-eyed ;).

Mel1

Q3?s comparisons are how #1 did compared to #2 of the same season. Not how one season did compared to another season. In talking about the winner not being the top seller, in some seasons, hers is a good comparison.

I think we’re basically on the same side. I’m just being nitpicky with certain comparisons.

Kirsten

Exactly Q3, and that’s more than enough to make me think there a huge disconnect between votes.

I don’t think we can even say that, because those statistics don’t tell the entire story.

Take Season 5. We all know that the 4th place finisher demolished the winner in total sales. No question. But Daughtry didn’t just sell to people in the Idol Bubble.

If you look at their first week sales, they are remarkably similar (only a few K differences in two of the biggest sales weeks of the year). By the second week, Taylor actually outsold Daughtry (but that is a Christmas week so the numbers are really probably a wash).

If we presume that most of the albums sold in the first few weeks were sold to Idol fans, an argument can be made that both contestants were equally popular. How Daughtry managed to outsell Taylor by a country mile or two is because his album was WAY better and sold outside of the bubble. It generated a lot of radio hits.

So, I don’t think one can reasonably say that A outsold B so A must have had more fans than B during Idol. It ignores the generation of new fans.

Now, Final 3 night that year was a virtual three way tie. It probably was pretty close in the voting the week before as well. So, who would lose in the “most iTunes-sold-all-year” battle? Likely the later surger, Elliott and I’m not sure that is really fair. That iTunes methodology punishes the come-from-behind artists like Elliott and Haley. I’m sure the Soul Patrol would have been buying boatloads of his singles all season long if they were available.

The other problem with this X amount of runner-ups outsold X amount of winners is that it treats them all the same. It’s totally binary. Carrie and Kelly far outsold their runner-ups, but that is counted as equal to Crystal who only sold 10s of thousands more. That doesn’t show a big disconnect – it shows a small disconnect in a few cases.

Stats can be twisted in many ways and that’s why the numbers thread often features vigorous debate.

Might give us an idea of who to look for. Or might search the articles at American Idol.com. Or maybe someone could just ask Fred for his list???

Elliegrll

As far as the one leak, even tho it doesn’t tell the whole story, you can extrapolate from that short period of time.

Since we don’t know how much time the glimpse of the chart covers, how can we extrapolate anything? For example, if we looked at Kris’ itunes page when The Truth was released, it’s popularity bars are a lot bigger than No Boundaries, but we know that NB sold a heck of a lot more than The Truth did.

S2 Clay and Ruben both had #1 Platinum albums — Clay just sold more than Ruben.

Clay sold twice as much as Ruben, and almost doubled what Ruben sold during their debut weeks. So, I don’t get the point.

but that is counted as equal to Crystal who only sold 10s of thousands more. That doesn’t show a big disconnect – it shows a small disconnect in a few cases.

Exactly. There are a lot of factors that come into play for why people sell a certain amount of albums.

Q3

My only point was that winners are the top seller only 56% of the time within a season.

I agree with Kristen, there is no way to figure out anything from the one AI8 leak except for that one moment in time. But the iTunes leak did show that Kris was not some dark horse who came from nowhere — and Danny was not the front runner the producers were trying to make it seem he was. Right after the Top 7 and the two top sellers were the final two.

Clay sold twice as much as Ruben, and almost doubled what Ruben sold during their debut weeks. So, I don’t get the point.

I quoted and responded to this statement — “S8 is more like S2, but the votes were not close.” which I disagree with.

IMO Season 2 and Season 8 have only one thing in common — the #2 finisher outsold the winner. Rubin’s debut almost sold 1.8 million units and was #1 on the Billboard 200. Idol produced two hit albums in Season 2. Clay’s sales were extremely strong for a #2 finisher — only beaten by Carrie’s debut.

In Season 8 the #2 finisher outsold the winner but the winner’s album was #11 and sold far less than previous winners (only Lee is lower). Adam’s sales were in line with the prior year’s #2.

So to me — Season 2 was unusual because the #2 had huge sales, and Season 8 was notable because the winner did not sell like previous winners.

fuzzywuzzy

Interesting list, Kirsten. Thanks for your efforts in compling it. :)

Mel1

It’s so funny to go back reading the comments from over two years ago. When the leak surfaced, everyone thought Adam had a lock for winning. He also seemed to have a lot of fans here back then.

Several people commented back then that since Mad World was performed the previous week, that song probably ranked higher performance week than the current leak week. Yet it was still ranking very high the following week, plus a couple of days.

Adam’s Mad World must have had a monster download after he sang it top 8.

So who can find the missing songs so we can make a complete list? Let the games begin.

DISCLAIMER: I did this at work, I’m tired, stressed, and did not check my work. And I am not a numbers person. (at least I haven’t been before)

Oh gosh!! William Hung is on that list!

He’s on Kirsten’s list, too.

BTW, Kirsten, I love this list. I am just a perfectionist and now I want to know it all. I can’t imagine how many hours this took you and I appreciate it more than you can know!

Valentin432

Thanks for the list Kirsten.

As for the voting process. How many times did it get “wrong” based on post idol success, if that’s really the way to measure things here?

Season 2 is pointed to as an exemple. But that vote was so controversial, with the number of phone lines problems, the reported closest vote ever and in the end was Ruben the wrong winner?
He’s had more radio success and as many n°1s (based on Kirsten list) than Clay, he sold fewers albums and both have had problems keeping themselves as major recording artists in the long run.

I also think that counting Crystal as a major reason why the system is flawed based on her post idol success, somewhat ridiculous based on a few tousand more albums sold and nothing else. I’m all for complaining that she lost based on her actual performances but not based on post idol success.

That leaves 2 times out of 10 where the system got it wrong in terms of picking winners who outsell the rest.

To me that’s an excellent batting average. if you compare to the X factor UK (who makes people pay for their votes) The past three winners were outsold by runner ups and the last one will have to outsell that boysband that Simon is promoting.

waiting4myrocket

Jordin Sparks’ “SOS Let The Music Play” hit #1 on the Billboard Dance Charts in late 2009.

https://twitter.com/pmhowden undercooked

The stats we have for the last 4 years (S7-S10) show that the winner sold the most Idol downloads.

What if you factor in the compilation albums?

weelassie

Trina says:
06/09/2011 at 3:52 pm

Exactly Q3, and that’s more than enough to make me think there a huge disconnect between votes.

Ruben’s success is always underestimated. He sold a lot of albums, had a big R&B hit and is the only male winner to get a Grammy nomination. Clay made the bigger splash but Ruben was in no way a failure.

True. And Daughtry has been nominated at least 4 times, and Ace Young once as well, but I think her point was about the relative success of AIs male winners.

Mel1

The stats we have for the last 4 years (S7-S10) show that the winner sold the most Idol downloads.

I thought it was already determined we didn’t know the stats for the entire season, but just one leak and after the finale. The numbers were not cumulative.

luly

wow, great job on this massive list Kirsten!

Kirsten

I thought it was already determined we didn’t know the stats for the entire season, but just one leak and after the finale. The numbers were not cumulative.

Yes, but the argument is that iTunes should count in part of the voting. The last week, when the winner is crowned, we get sales numbers. Every year the winner has outsold everybody else. That would seem to indicate they would have won the iTunes “vote” that week as well.

Sure, a lot of people like to buy the winners music and the winners fans may be more enthusiastic, but a lot of the runner-up’s fans are also enthusiastic to prove that their Idol should have won too.

The only year that the runner-up has outsold the winner the first week of single sales has been Clay and there is every indication that year the phone lines were completely over-saturated. I don’t think we can totally dismiss this first week of sales. The week they win, the winners may just be the contestant that has the ability to sell the most music that week too. We certainly saw in Season 7 that spikes in popularity and sales happen when one has a good performance and the week after that.

We could just look at cumulative sales and votes, but that prevents come-from-behind contestants ever having a chance at winning, makes the winner predictable from about top 9 and is reminiscent of the judging during a cold war figure skating competition where one is rewarded for what one did months ago rather than what one has done lately.

http://www.twilightslo.com Mateja

Yes, but the argument is that iTunes should count in part of the voting. The last week, when the winner is crowned, we get sales numbers. Every year the winner has outsold everybody else. That would seem to indicate they would have won the iTunes “vote” that week as well.

Sure, a lot of people like to buy the winners music and the winners fans may be more enthusiastic, but a lot of the runner-up’s fans are also enthusiastic to prove that their Idol should have won too.

The only year that the runner-up has outsold the winner the first week of single sales has been Clay and there is every indication that year the phone lines were completely over-saturated. I don’t think we can totally dismiss this first week of sales. The week they win, the winners may just be the contestant that has the ability to sell the most music that week too. We certainly saw in Season 7 that spikes in popularity and sales happen when one has a good performance and the week after that.

I don’t think that the sales numbers we get after the finale for the week of finale are really useful. Sure, if the difference in numbers is really huge for both coronation singles and other recordings of TOP 2, then we can assume that the winner is actually the contestant with the ability to sell the most that week. When the winner is announced and the coronation song is sung again, many immediately go on iTunes and download the coronation single because that’s the first official release from the winner and is a souvenir of the season. Many people are just curious. In season 2, singles were physically released and I don’t think the viewers could just run to their local music store right after the finale to buy it.

Honestly, I think my suggested iTunes save would just prevent shock boots around TOP 5 or 4. I mean, what are the chances that someone that is #1 or 2 in iTunes sales in TOP 12 week gets the least votes? Chances that iTunes sales would have to save someone at that stage are small. Also, I think the season is long enough for come-from-behind contestants to catch up (have a moment, sell a lot of the last recordings and older recordings). With my suggested format, every contestant would have 14 songs selling on iTunes at the time of TOP 5 results show, so the save would be based on sales of 12 recordings (TOP 16 (2x), 15, 14, 13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6) that week. Plenty of chances for the contestants to prove themselves. TOP 5 week, the contestants sing and record two songs, so that would actually favor “late bloomers”.

https://twitter.com/pmhowden undercooked

Honestly, I think my suggested iTunes save would just prevent shock boots around TOP 5 or 4. I mean, what are the chances that someone that is #1 or 2 in iTunes sales in TOP 12 week gets the least votes?

I like the idea of using ITUNES rankings but I think the sales numbers need to be kept secret until after the season is over. UMG should be the only one to have access to those numbers during the season. UMG should get 1/2 vote and the voting audience got one vote and the judges get 1/2.

I don’t think that the sales numbers we get after the finale for the week of finale are really useful. Sure, if the difference in numbers is really huge for both coronation singles and other recordings of TOP 2, then we can assume that the winner is actually the contestant with the ability to sell the most that week. When the winner is announced and the coronation song is sung again, many immediately go on iTunes and download the coronation single because that’s the first official release from the winner and is a souvenir of the season.

Yes, I’m not sure they are useful either because the winner’s coronation single always sells more than the runner ups (if they even get one). Not only that, but some contestants have their biggest hits early in the season so post finale, those sells won’t be that big since most people have downloaded them.

But, I do think the download totals somewhat reflect how close the race is . In S8, I believe Dial Idol and that race was too close to call. Kris and Adam were very close in sales numbers. Kris sold about 100,000 more single downloads than Adam, which was almost exactly the difference in their NO BO sales. But Adam sold 5,000 more compilation albums.

Here’s another #1 for Kelly.
The Official UK Singles Top 10
1. Kelly Clarkson – ‘My Life Would Suck Without You’
Kelly Clarkson has scored her first ever UK Number 1 with single ‘My Life Would Suck Without You’

eta: I forgot to thank you Kirsten! I really enjoyed reading this and thank you for all your hard work compiling it. It really is fun!

Kirsten

Here’s another #1 for Kelly.
The Official UK Singles Top 10
1. Kelly Clarkson – ‘My Life Would Suck Without You’
Kelly Clarkson has scored her first ever UK Number 1 with single ‘My Life Would Suck Without You’

Sure. Add one at the start of the list so I have to renumber everything. Couldn’t you have found one for Scotty? ;-)

I’ll add a note for that one, but is it actually a Billboard #1? I’m being pedantic, but there are a lot of charting agencies and they don’t always agree.

Gina

Actually, I don’t know of it’s actually a Billboard chart. I just remember hearing quite a bit about it when it happened. It was a pretty big deal at the time and the British press was all over it.